Key Points
Labor will act to provide security for the thousands of forest industry employees by ensuring open, transparent and secure access to resource by Tasmanian businesses with investments in Tasmania. Labor will ensure Tasmanian contractors get a fair go at Tasmanian contracts and that the special species sector can get fair access to timber.
To achieve this a Rebecca White Labor Government will:
- STOP the current plantation sawlog EOI process being conducted by Sustainable Timbers Tasmania, a process which could see mills starved of logs, workers thrown on the scrapheap and more logs exported out of Tasmania.
- REVIEW the available resources – both native forest and plantation – in an open and transparent process with independent oversight.
- PROTECT existing Tasmanian businesses and their workers to ensure they have the highest priority to obtain long term secure contracts for wood supply. No sawlog or peelers will be exported in whole log form if they can be processed in Tasmania.
- DEVELOP a framework for prioritising access to STT’s wood supply capacity that is in the best interests of the State with a particular reference to regional Tasmania.
- PROVIDE confidence to existing STT customers by giving them the opportunity to negotiate enforceable contracts on commercial terms for their existing volumes, as a minimum until 2040.
- ENFORCE the local benefits weighting of 25% so that Tasmanian Contractors get a fair go.
- ENSURE the future of the special species sector by the creation of a standalone Special Timbers Authority funded by the current Community Service Obligation funding tasked with managing all aspects of non-blackwood special timber supply and management.
Why we need it
The last decade has seen the shameful treatment of local Tasmanian businesses and workers that make up the Tasmanian forest industry by the Liberal Government.
“Labor will provide certainty for the thousands of people employed in forestry.”
The Liberals – while claiming to support the Tasmanian forest industry – have, in fact, destroyed the local jobs of Tasmanians in regional areas.
Sawmillers, veneer processors and the special species sector have been deprived of certainty and secure access to a quality resource. This prevents them from being able to plan their investment decisions, procure markets for their products and provide secure employment to all those Tasmanians that rely on the industry for their employment. The Liberals promised certainty and secure access at the last three elections and have failed to deliver. In the meantime, local logging contractors have been overlooked with contracts going to mainland operators.
The details
Labor agrees that an independent pricing mechanism is needed to ensure contract terms are reached that guarantee fair market price for the public resource, while at the same time providing a mechanism to make sure STT’s price can be independently audited to determine if the terms are fair and reasonable and not subject to an abuse of market power.
Labor will therefore establish an independent Forest Products Price Oversight Body to ensure Tasmanians obtain a fair price for their resources in a way that will provide for secure employment for thousands of Tasmanians in regional towns and cities across the State.
Specific additional funding and commitments
- $5 million towards developing new ways to process logs on-island.
- Labor commits to and funds the Tasmanian Timber Promotion Board in future Budgets.
- $350,000 for a heli-harvesting trial of the dead Huon pine.
- Labor commits to including private forest estate owners in the TasGRN rollout.
- Labor will rewrite the STT Ministerial Charter to reflect our Tasmania First policy.